ARK, the Custom Firmware for PSP (compatible with both PSP/Vita) has been back in activity (thanks to Acid_Snake) for about a year now, and is regularly getting new updates. This week, Ark v15 was released. Since the last time we talked about it, memory usage was improved, leda compatibility was fixed, and Pro Online should now work.
What’s ARK for PSP/PS Vita
The PSP is one of the best homebrew devices. It had a striving community, and a lot of developers pushed it to its limit, in particular with emulators that achieved incredible performance for those days (ok, I won’t pretend it’s the best way to play emulators nowadays though, but it still works great for older generation consoles such as the NES, SNES, GBA…).
Running a Custom firmware on the PSP turned a decent console into an insane beast. And the same remains true on the PS Vita: As the Vita has a full fledged PSP emulator embedded, it is possible (and recommended!) to install a PSP Custom Firmware on the PS Vita.
That’s where ARK comes into play, being a custom firmware that works for both the PSP and the PS Vita. It comes with impressive features (from the readme):
Features:
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Core system for unsigned code execution on every PSP device based on 6.60 kernel.
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Inferno driver Version 2 compatible with ISO, CSO, ZSO, JSO, CSOv2 and DAX formats.
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Popcorn controller for custom PS1 games. Compatible with PopsLoader V3 and V4i.
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Stargate No-DRM engine.
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Plugin support for PSP games, PSX games and VSH (XMB), including the ability to enable and disable plugins per-game.
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Compatible with all PSP models on firmwares 6.60 and 6.61.
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Compatible with all PS Vita models on firmware 2.10 and up.
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Minimalistic: only 6 files installed on PSP flash, CFW extensions are installed on memory stick.
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Custom game launcher with built-in game categories, file browser, FTP server and client, modernized look and more.
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Compatible with PRO Online.
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Compatible with Legacy Homebrew via eLoader and Leda.
What’s new in ARK 15
Here’s what’s new in Ark since 10, which was the last time we talked about it:
Release 15
- Fixed compatibility with leda plugin.
Release 14
- Fixed memory issues in VSH.
- Fixed DAX format games.
- Fixed Prometheus-patched games in custom launcher.
- Improved Inferno Cache on all models:
- 32KB cache for PSP 1K.
- 8MB cache for 2K and newer.
- 4MB cache for Vita.
- Improved stability between the highmem, inferno cache and psp go pause features.
- Added Inferno Cache option to recovery menu.
- Fixed incompatibilities between Inferno Cache and Highmem.
- Fixed highmem on PSP.
- Added experimental highmem support on PS Vita.
- Some other fixes.
- PRO Online should work now!
Release 13
- Added reboot runtime module support on PS Vita.
- Added ARK Version to vsh menu.
- Fixed exitgame
- Added ARK version to custom launcher and recovery.
- Huge cleanup of all Core CFW modules, reducing memory consumption.
- You can now disable plugins on a per-game or per-runlevel basis.
Release 12
- More cleanup of Core CFW files.
- Fixed Popsloader V4i by PopsDeco.
Release 11
- Huge cleanup and improvements in Core CFW modules SystemControl, Inferno and VshControl.
This will result in ARK consuming much less memory.
Download and install ARK for PSP/PS Vita
To get Ark V15 stable, go to this specific release.
Alternatively, if you want the latest and greatest (automated builds with each commit), head over to the release section of the developer’s github to get the latest release.
Installation instructions in the readme.
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